Outlook Search Fix

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Outlook Search Fix

Uploaded by

Anish Sebastian

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Fix – Outlook Search Doesn’t

Work
Posted on APRIL 2, 2016 by Mitch Bartlett 29 COMMENTS

Is the Microsoft Outlook 2016 or 2013 search not working for you? Does it just come up with the
message “Something went wrong and your search couldn’t be completed.” or “We couldn’t find
what you were looking for.” even though you know you have messages that meet your search
criteria? Give these steps a try.

Fix 1 – Ensure Windows Search Service is Started

1. Select “Start” and type “CMD“.
2. Right-click “Command Prompt” then choose “Run as administrator“.
3. If prompted, enter a username and password that grants admin rights to the computer.
4. Type “sc config wsearch start= auto“, then press “Enter“. You should get a “SUCCESS”
message.
5. Type “net start wsearch“, then press “Enter“. You should receive a message that the
service was started.

Fix 2 – “Hide Messages” Setting

This tip seems to commonly help people.

 In Outlook, select “View” > “Change View” and ensure you don’t have “Hide Messages
Marked For Deletion” selected.

Fix 3 – Reset Indexing

If Fix 1 didn’t do it, try to perform these steps to reset Outlook Indexing.
1. In Outlook, go to “File” > “Options” > “Search” > “Indexing Options” > “Modify” and
uncheck “Microsoft Outlook“. Select “Close” when done.
2. Go to “File” > “Account Settings” > “Account Settings“.
3. Select the “Data Files” tab.
4. Write down the “Location” for where each “OST” file is located. We will need to go to
the folder(s) specified.
5. Close Outlook.
6. Using “Windows Explorer” navigate to the folder(s) where the OST file(s) is/are located.
These are the folders you wrote down in step 4. The location is usually “C:\Users\
yourusername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook“.
7. Highlight all the OST files in the folder. You can hold the “CTRL” key to click and select
each one.
8. Right-click a highlighted file, then select “Properties“.
9. Select the “Advanced…” button.
10. Check the “Allow this file to have contents indexed in addition to file properties”
option if it isn’t checked already, then select “OK“.
11. Now Open Outlook, then go back to “File” > “Options” > “Search” > “Indexing
Options” > “Modify” and recheck “Microsoft Outlook“. Select “Close” when done.

Fix 4 – Rebuild Search Index

Note: This could take several hours to complete.

1. In Outlook, select “File” > “Options” > “Search“.

2. Select the “Indexing Options…” button.
3. Select “Advanced“.
4. Select the “Rebuild” button.

5. Select “OK” to start the rebuild.

Give Outlook a few minutes to index items. The search feature should start working eventually.

Outlook Search Fix

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Outlook Search Fix

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Fix – Outlook Search Doesn’t

Fix 1 – Ensure Windows Search Service is Started

Fix 2 – “Hide Messages” Setting

Fix 3 – Reset Indexing

Fix 4 – Rebuild Search Index

1. In Outlook, select “File” > “Options” > “Search“.

5. Select “OK” to start the rebuild.

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